Los Santos International Airport (LSIA or LSX) is an international airport located in Los Santos, to the west of the port and to the south of La Puerta in GTA V. The LSIA district is also the location of the airport's nearby warehouses, restaurants, and hotels.

Contents

Overview

The airport consists of three runways, one on its north-western side used for small business jets and two on its southern side used for large commercial aircraft. GTA V is the first game in the HD Universe in which players can see planes taking off and landing on their own, as well the first game in the HD universe that allows the player to fully control the large Boeing 747-inspired commercial Jets. There are also some inaccessible smaller airliners, which mix some elements between the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 NG, parked around the main terminal.

Trespassing on the runways will result in a three-star wanted level unless the player purchases a hangar as either Franklin and/or Michael, which allows the player who owns a hangar to roam around the entire airport safely (however both characters need to purchase hangars in order for both to be able to roam freely; Trevor cannot access the airport at any time without a wanted level). NOOSE has a branch based at LSX. There is high security at the entrances to the airport with CCTV and at least one armed guard at all the vehicle entrances. The entrance and approach road to the passenger terminal is patrolled by police officers, usually armed with Carbine Rifles

After obtaining The Business Update, Michael and Franklin will have full access to the airport tarmac from the beginning of the game to obtain the free vehicle available in the update.

Locations

Exterior

The exterior of the airport, where the entrance to the main terminals are located, can be found northeast of the runways. It displays most of the influence in Los Angeles International Airport, with the roads layout and buildings being nearly a carbon copy of the real airport, including one extremely similar to the Theme Building and a control tower also very similar to the real one.

The two U-shaped roads, one overlapping the other in an upper floor, come from Interstate 5 and circle all the 4 main airport terminals and two large accessible parking garages. The control tower is located Between both garages. Also centered near the parking garages and the aforementioned buildings is an exterior parking lot with two AT-400-like airliners reproduced in a giant sculpture. These are surrounded by multiple light towers, based on those placed in LAX. The Opium Nights and Von Crastenburg hotels can be found north of the terminal roads.

There are four entrance gates for the airport tarmac located near the roads, which automatically open in single player when approached but are closed in Online (unless the player has a Pegasus Lifestyle Management vehicle waiting for him inside), meaning the player will have to jump across or drive through the weak fences surrounding it. There are also multiple entrances for the subway.

Overview of the exterior.

View from the Sightings Bar & Restaurant.

View from the control tower.

The Sightings Bar & Restaurant, with the AT-400 based statues next to it.

Terminals

There are four main terminals surrounding the U-shaped roads on the northeastern area of the airport, with different airlines assigned to them. None of the main terminals have interiors and, independently from the assigned airliners, the Jets that spawn on the tarmac facet of the terminals are random.

Behind terminal 4, close to some helipads, a staircase can be climbed, which leads to a long corridor that goes directly to the terminal's roof. It has vending machines and benches where sometimes pedestrians can be found sitting. It can be a particularly good spot for hiding and resisting bounties in Online.

A smaller terminal can be found near the southern hangars of the airport, between the Concierge and Michael's Pegasus hangars. This terminal also features a small interior: By walking up on stairs behind it, a short L-shaped hallway can be accessed. Similar to the latter, it contains a few benches where two pedestrians can be found sitting, vending machines and a ladder that grants access to a hatch to the roof of the structure.

Terminal 4 as seen from the main road.

Passengers outside the terminal

Exterior of the secondary terminal, with the staircase leading up to it's small interior.

Tarmac and runways

The tarmac of the airport is considerably vast, covering most of the area near the terminals. Multiple aircraft spawn in the area, such as the Jets, Shamals, a Velum and a Mammatus. Ripleys and airport buses can also be seen roaming around the tarmac and surrounding roads (See vehicles for more information).

There are three runways in the airport, two of them in the southern area for large airliners and one of them in the western area for private jets. In singleplayer, Jets often appear in the southern ones, taking off in the right and landing in the left runways. After landing, they taxi a small path and park near Franklin's hangar. Shamals and Luxors can be seen landing in the western runway, and following a taxi path to the tarmac near the main terminals.

Despite being arguably the most realistic airport in the series, the runways themselves appear to be quite small and have a lack of length for an international airport. They appear to be only 1 to 1,5 km. The tarmac is also too small to fit the Jet, having it's back and tail usually sticking out. The vehicles can't taxi through some parts of the tarmac due to lack of space in the airport itself. Making the airport look as real as possible would require a much larger amount of space, probably being twice or three times the size. Rockstar probably avoided doing this due to that the airport would possibly be bigger than a large portion of the city. The capacity of the console would be another reason.

Northern view, with aircraft from all four main airlines parked around the terminals.

Hangars

There is a total of six hangars, most of them lined up together in the southern area of the airport, three of which can be entered by the player. The biggest hangar, located near one of the entrances, belongs to Devin Weston and includes a corridor with multiple stacked boxes that leads to a locker room. A forklift can be found in this same corridor. The hangar might also be used by FlyUS as the company's logo can be found on the back of it.

The other two enterable hangars, in the southern area, can be purchased by Michael and Franklin for airplanes to be stored and, when purchased by the in-game internet, spawned there. Franklin's hangar is also featured in the multiplayer mission A Titan of a Job as the location where Merryweather is keeping a Titan and Michael's hangar is featured in The Los Santos Connection where a crew is storing cocaine and vehicles. Two Stretch limos, one white and one black, spawn in front of Michael's hangar.

Cargo Bay

The cargo bay of the airport is located in the southwest area, left of the private jets runway. It includes multiple unit loading devices stacked up together and a small inaccessible storage building. A scrapped, heavily burnt front section of a Jet can be found in the area, being a training prop for firemen as commonly found in airports, west of the fire station. There is also a radar tower near the building.

Two 10-car garages can be purchased around the vicinity of the airport in GTA Online.

Tarmac and hangars

As mentioned before, there are two hangars south of the runways that can each be purchased by either Michael or Franklin. They can be used to store aircraft or vehicles bought from Warstock Cache & Carry. Trevor cannot purchase a hangar, most likely due to his ability to access the one on Sandy Shores Airfield.

On the interior of the small south area terminal, Sprunk and E-Cola vending machines can be found.

Other Sprunk and E-Cola vending machine can be found in Devin Weston's hangar.

Vehicles

In total, 5parked Jets and 2moving Jets can be found. Parked Jets can be found around the terminals (2 at the south near Michael's hangar and 3 around the main airport), while moving ones can be found taking off and landing, occasionally.

Luxors and Shamals are often landing, taxiing and parked around the airport.

A Mammatus and Cuban 800 are found parked to the side of Michael's hangar most of the time (in different colours) next to a road. This is the only place a parked Mammatus and Cuban 800 can be found in Story Mode excluding purchased ones.

A Velum can be found at a hanger next to Franklin's, usually in blue, but rarely in other colours.

Ripleys can be found parked and driving near many hangars, storage depots and terminals.

Airtugs are often found parked near planes along with baggage, storage, ramp and flat trailers. They are also driving around.

Utility trucks are found at storage sections around the perimeter of the airport.

Transport

The LSIA is well served by the Los Santos Transit due to how active LSIA is. There is a LSIA Parking Station provided for travellers to park their vehicles while coming into the airport or coming out. There is also the Terminal 4 Station located nearby for people trying to enter or exit the terminal grounds. Car rental companies Escalera and Touchdown are also located here.

Law Enforcement

In the game, there are usually two LSPD officers with carbine rifles and body armor guarding the airport. The LSX does not have its own police department like its counter part, LAX which is covered by the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department (LAWAPD for short), but instead are covered by the LSPD.

Gallery

Roadmap of the airport.

The airport as seen from the runways intersection.

The airport terminal, as seen from the north.

Terminal seen from the south.

Passengers outside the terminal.

An airliner landing in the airport, in the beta version, as seen in Michael's trailer.

The main taxi zones crossing the runways

Another view of the beta airport in the same trailer. Unused airliner liveries can be seen.

Trivia

It could be possible that the LSIA is restricted due to the disastrous events in GTA Online. The airport was attacked a few times by the GTA Online Protagonist and resulted in several deaths and a few aircraft destroyed/stolen.

Even though there are signs outside terminal 2 for San Fierro Air and signs outside terminal 4 for Los Santos Air, these airlines are never seen advertised or seen on the airport tarmac. It is possible that they may use fleets of Luxors.

This airport is one of the only known spawn points for the Stretch. Two Stretches, one in black and the other in white, are seen parked outside Michael's hangar, most likely for the transport of VIPs to and from the airport.

Strangely, when flying over the airport, the air traffic controller will warn the player to divert the area, but will sometimes warn the player that they will be shot down, even though there are no P-996 LAZER's that will spawn behind the player's aircraft to shoot them down.

If shooting the Shamals, Jets and Luxors that are approaching the runway, they will instead change course and fly into the Pacific Ocean.

In the mission Legal Trouble, planes have different patterns. Planes land on different runways from the other direction, thrust from the engines cause police vehicles to flip, and there are planes parked in different places and ways. Some different vehicles are also present unlike normal.

Plane spotters outside the airport

Sometimes a group of plane spotters looking with binoculars and taking pictures of landing aircraft can be found on the beach by the northwestern entrance of the airport, near the Los Santos Customs.

In rare circumstances, a Jet can be seen flying a holding pattern over the airport.

At first glance, there seems to be a mistake in the Runway Numbering System; in real life, each end of a runway is numbered to it's specific compass direction (09 if heading east, 090 degrees/27 at other end, 270 degrees (West heading)). Either side is 180 degrees opposite to it's other end. The two parallel runways in the airport are 12L/33R, and 12R/33L. If 12L/12R are correct, it should be 12L/30R, 12R/30L. The same concept is used if 33 is the 'Correct heading'; 33L/15R, 33R/15L. The third runway 3/21 is set out incorrectly once again.

If the player was to add up the numbers of one of the double runways and the side runway, they will get a clever sexual innuendo commonly used in Rockstar's games: 3 + 21 + 12 + 33 = 69. (credit)

Strangely, Jets and Shamals are much found landing much rarer in the enhanced version of the game, they seem to become more popular once the player unlocks Trevor, however.

In the enhanced version, the airport fences securing the perimeter have been made completely indestructible, vehicles will not break them, nor will weapons including RPGs and Grenades.